We celebrate yet another Labor Day in the 21st Century, and the honoring of those who not only do the heavy lifting, but the trade unions and organizations that held the owners feet to the fire and made sure that they and their manager didn’t take advantage of the workers and used them for their fair game and leave them with nothing afterwards.
This piece however is not about Labor Day par say, but for the record I do support the rights of workers and their right to collectively bargain and form a private trade/labor union. I oppose forced union membership hands down; and as with the great progressive icon FDR, I also oppose government centric unions…and that includes teachers unions. But I will keep my power dry and go deeper into these things another day.
America has honored Labor Day since it officially became a holiday in 1852. During the later 20th Century it also become known for something else. The annual Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon which began in 1966 with the multitalented performer Jerry Lewis as the main presenter and fund raiser for MDA. Up until 2010, Lewis appeared on the show without fail someway and somehow. The MDA telethon ran none stop for over 21 hours, starting Sunday evening Labor Day Eve and doing into Labor Day late afternoon/early evening. MDA tried to carry on the telethon without Jerry afterwards, by doing just a four-hour, later a two-hour program for about four years, before ending the telethon altogether. While there is still MDA awareness especially the Boot campaign by local fire fighters, Labor Day has never been the same without Jerry Lewis who passed away in 2017, and three years after the annual MDA telethon left the air.
Over time I affectionally called Labor Day, “Jerry Lewis Day” only because of his annual telethon that aired for 45 Labor Day holidays...plus like many Gen Xers (I am one of them) and millennials, I grew up knowing this program was on every Labor Day. Now in honor of those 45 Labor Days in which you saw Jerry Lewis raise money for MDA, we now need an official holiday for Jerry Lewis, and without replacing Labor Day itself. A Jerry Lewis Day should take place on the Sunday before Labor Day itself. For those 45 Labor days from 1966 until 2010 (and yes the final four years without Jerry), certain people from the famous to the common folk did labor for “Jerry’s Kids” and to eventually find ways to overcome Muscular Dystrophy. If anyone brought awareness of MD, it was Lewis himself, and long before his long running MDA Telethon and even before he parted ways with his partner Dean “Dino” Martin. And yes, let us not forget what Frank Sinatra did on the 1976 edition of the Jerry Lewis Telethon, where he reunited Jerry with Dino.
Sure, his telethon might have its controversy and some say Jerry might have been dishonest at times. But to be able to keep going the way that he did, shows commitment even when Jerry himself was getting older and might have not be able to do his telethon like he used to. MDA decided to part ways with Jerry after 2010, and then realized after a few years…that non one could do their telethon like Jerry Lewis did. Plus, the concept is not as popular like it was in the past (I am not counting fund raising for your favorite public media outlet like PBS, NPR, etc, or non-profit Christian media outlets like K-Love, Way FM, Bott, BBN, etc.). Some of the famous telethons of the past included the Easter Seals Telethon (which in their later years were presented by Pat Boone), St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, United Cerebral Palsy, Arthritis Foundation, and the Children's Miracle Network. When the other charities decided to move away from the telethon fund raising concept, Jerry Lewis still had enough get go inside him going to keep his MDA fund raising “Love Network” going.
Even after MDA told Jerry to retire or whatever they did behinds the scenes, he came out of the shadows after MDA revamped its website site in 2016 telling the supporters of MDA that their cause must move on. Lewis also gave approval of the new website. That sounds like someone who says, I really put my hard work and sweat…especially on a day in which work…blue collar work was honored as a national holiday, and it also says that Jerry Lewis holds no bitter and hard feelings. He knows he can’t go on forever, but others must take their place and others means of raising funds must also be used. A year later Jerry Lewis passed on after 91 years of life.
Again, a day honoring Jerry Lewis should not trump Labor Day, but rather complement it. The best way is to keep the first Monday in September as the official Labor Day holiday, and to declare the Sunday before Labor Day to be the day in which we honor the man who worked so many of those Labor Days to push back against Muscular Dystrophy.
Thank You Jerry Lewis.
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